It's driving Mr Crazy - After £10k in parking fines and 27 trips to car pound, Mario Balotelli gets a chauffeur

Posted Friday, July 08, 2011 by The Sun

It's driving Mr Crazy - After £10k in parking fines and 27 trips to car pound, Mario Balotelli gets a chauffeur
On the Bal ... ace is ferried around in chauffeur-driven Merc

MANCHESTER City's eccentric Italian ace Mario Balotelli is resorting to a £3,000-a-week chauffeur - after racking up £10,000 in parking fines.

The Maserati-loving striker, 20, is fed up with his flash motors being impounded after 27 trips to retrieve them last season.

He is also furious at his beloved white model constantly being vandalised when parked near his home in Manchester's Deansgate.

Balotelli - who cost City £24million from Inter Milan last summer and earns £100,000 a week - is now being ferried around in a Mercedes limo by a driver from local firm Elite Cars. The chauffeur works for him full-time while the player's own motors are garaged.

A source said: "Mario was getting tired of all the hassle with his cars. He was spending a fortune on repairs to his vandalised Maserati.

"He was also advised by the club to sort out his parking fines because of all the unnecessary admin."

The madcap ace shelled out more than £300,000 in club fines last season. They included a week's wages for throwing darts at a youth team player.